United States: the White House's secret war on cannabis

A White House committee called the Cannabis Policy Coordination Committee has ordered 14 federal agencies, including the DEA, to provide it with data regarding the «most significant negative trends» concerning cannabis and the «threat» it poses. No one has heard of the creation of this committee, and the Trump administration has not denied its existence.

Secret Committee, disinformation and propaganda

On July 27, the committee met with representatives of the most important federal agencies from the Departments of Justice, Homeland Security, Health and Human Services and the State Department. The meeting was held behind closed doors, and documents were distributed internally only. This was without counting the work of BuzzFeed who managed to break the story open and gain access to the documents. In the summary of the meeting, the initiative is justified by the fact that «the dominant discourse on cannabis is biased, one-sided and inaccurate».

The White House believes that «if the administration is on the verge of turning the tide on cannabis, there is an urgent need to communicate around the negative effects of cannabis use, production and trafficking on national health and security.».

Recently in Congress, a bill that would allow states to set their own cannabis policy without federal interference was introduced by Republican Senator Cory Gardner and Democratic Senator Elizabeth Warren. In itself, the White House's goal might be laudable if the methods used were not so dubious: a secret committee, federal propaganda with an unscientific and biased discourse...

In the weeks following the meeting, the White House sent agencies in the relevant departments, as well as other departments including Defense, Education, Transportation, Veterans Affairs and the Environmental Protection Agency, an explanatory memo instructing them to submit a two-page technical document identifying cannabis-related problems and threats by August 10. In the document, agencies are also asked to provide «an incident-related story or photo, which illustrates one or more of the major problems relating to cannabis use, production and trafficking».

The objective is clear: cannabis is to be described in pejorative terms and presented as a national threat, despite the numerous American studies that have shown the contrary. For example, the holistic approach of the New York study on the risks and benefits of legalization in terms of public health and safety concluded that the benefits far outweighed the risks, which could be minimized by intelligent regulation. When questioned by Buzzfeed, the agencies and departments concerned declined to comment, as did the National Office of Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) and the White House Press Office.

Trump's turnaround

While Trump had several times expressed its support to the bipartisan initiative that eliminated federal impediments to state cannabis policies, it seems that he is now playing both sides of the fence. At the same time, he is trying to discredit the states that are legalizing and to sway public opinion, which is currently 63% % in favor of legalization. a Quinnipiac University survey. It's not yet clear whether Trump is behind this initiative or whether he's being manipulated by his administration, but according to Buzzfeed, the reports due from the agencies were going to be used to brief him on the dangers of cannabis. It may be that he is taking the side of defending states' rights while maintaining a negative stance on cannabis, although this position is somewhat paradoxical.

A journalist from Brookings Institution expressed his anger, calling the gathering of partial and biased information a «fraud»: «This is a lamentable political maneuver on the part of the administration (...) The coordination of propaganda around an issue that the President has publicly supported is unprecedented». He castigates the president: «This is a president who isn't serious about states» rights and regulatory reform in drug policy, and who isn't serious about telling the truth to the American people or to members of Congress from his own party". He is referring to the agreement with Republican Senator Cory Gardner.

This agreement dates back to Jeff Sessions' decision, at the beginning of the year, to abolish the Cole Memorandum introduced under the Obama administration, which allowed states to decide for themselves whether to legalize cannabis. To date, more than 40 states have taken advantage of it. Visit Cole Memo does have a few shortcomings, however: among others, it does not allow banks and insurers to support the cannabis business due to federal interference. The STATE act recently introduced by Garner and Warren was designed to rectify these flaws by removing all federal interference (it also legalizes industrial hemp). Following Sessions' decision, Cory Gardner retaliated by convening senators from the impacted states to blockade the Justice Department nomination, which must be voted on by the full Senate. To break the deadlock, Trump concluded with the senator that he would support the STATE act.

Asked about his possible support, he said (at 11:30min in the previous video): «Yes, I really support him. I support Senator Gardner (...) I know exactly what he's doing. We're looking into it. I will probably, in time, support the project, yes». A Democratic representative from Colorado, Jared Polis, criticized Trump's fickleness: «Trump goes all over the place with cannabis policies, sometimes he says the states should choose but at the same time he lets the Attorney General and other prohibitionists run wild without reacting. If the White House is indeed misinforming on cannabis to undermine states» rights, it's appalling but not surprising for Trump and his gang of prohibitionists.".

Senator Gardner, for his part, remains assured of the support the President had expressed to him: «I received a commitment from the President (...) he assured me that he would support a legislative solution at the federal level to fix the states» rights issue once and for all«. Apparently, he has been talking to Trump recently and frequently about the issue. A member of his staff said, »Regardless of the accuracy of this story, Senator Gardner remains confident in the President's commitment.".

Congressman Earl Blumenauer, meanwhile, was wary of the value of this commitment and warned, «This is another head-spinning moment. We should hope for the best but take nothing for granted. Trump changes his mind constantly.